Parents fight back after schools vowed to defy end of Plan B and force pupils to wear masks

Has your child been sent home for refusing to wear a mask?

Parents have launched a campaign to prevent ‘overzealous’ schools from imposing masks in schools after teaching unions threatened to derail Boris Johnson’s easing of Covid curbs.

Head teachers in England are set to ignore the Prime Minister’s bonfire of Plan B restrictions by compelling pupils to wear face coverings in classrooms.

Britain’s big teaching unions have accused the embattled Tory leader of making the decision to save his own political career as he handles the fallout from ‘Partygate’, rather than basing it on ‘sound public health and scientific advice’. 

The National Education Union warned against lifting Omicron measures ‘too quickly’, claiming it could lead to ‘more disruption’ for schools.

Its general secretary Dr Mary Bousted called the removal of masks ‘premature’, adding: ‘Rather than announcements aimed at saving Boris Johnson’s job, (the) Government should be exercising a duty of care to the nation’s pupils and the staff who educate them.’

Geoff Barton, the ASCL’s boss, said: ‘There is a danger that we are heading once again for a situation in which the Government gives the impression that the crisis is over when in actual fact there is huge disruption continuing to take place in education’.

Parent group UsForThem, which campaigned to get classrooms reopened during the pandemic, has now urged its supporters to bombard MPs and ministers with letters to ‘stop overzealous local public health authorities from unilaterally implementing face masks in schools’.

Mr Johnson’s easing of Omicron curbs was also welcomed by senior Conservative backbencher Robert Halfon and the National Deaf Children’s Society.

It comes as a recent poll by parent voice charity Parentkind found that nearly two thirds of parents of secondary school children are not in favour of masks in the classroom. There was less opposition among parents to coverings in communal school areas. 

Schools are preparing to defy the Prime Minister by ordering children to continue wearing masks in classrooms

Parents have launched a campaign to prevent ‘overzealous’ schools from imposing masks in schools

Parents have launched a campaign to prevent ‘overzealous’ schools from imposing masks in schools

UsForThem campaigner Molly Kingsley

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi

Parent group UsForThem, which fought to get classrooms reopened during the pandemic (left, campaigner Molly Kingsley), has now urged its supporters to bombard Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi (right) MPs and ministers with letters to ‘stop overzealous local public health authorities from unilaterally implementing face masks in schools’

In a statement to MPs in the Commons yesterday, Boris Johnson announced WFH guidance would be immediately dropped and rules on masks in schools would also be scrapped from today. Other restrictions including compulsory face coverings on public transport and in shops will end next Thursday

In a statement to MPs in the Commons yesterday, Boris Johnson announced WFH guidance would be immediately dropped and rules on masks in schools would also be scrapped from today. Other restrictions including compulsory face coverings on public transport and in shops will end next Thursday

So what is changing… and when will it happen? Your guide to the post-curb rules as Boris Johnson announces the end of Covid Plan B restrictions 

IMMEDIATELY

WORKING FROM HOME 

The Prime Minister said the Government is no longer asking people to work from home. He called on people to speak to their employers about arrangements for returning to the office.

FROM TODAY

MASKS IN SCHOOLS

From today, secondary school pupils will not have to wear face coverings in classrooms.

The requirement to wear masks in corridors and other communal areas will end next Thursday, January 27.

FROM NEXT THURSDAY

MASKS IN PUBLIC PLACES

From next Thursday, the Government will no longer legally mandate the wearing of face coverings in shops and on public transport.

But they will continue to suggest masks should be worn in enclosed and crowded places where people could come into contact with those they do not normally meet.

The Prime Minister said this meant the Government will ‘trust the judgment of the British people and no longer criminalise anyone who chooses not to wear one’.

COVID PASSPORTS

Proof of vaccination or a recent negative test will no longer be needed to enter nightclubs and large venues from next Thursday.

But businesses will still be free to use the NHS Covid Pass if they want.

BY THE END OF THE MONTH

TRAVEL

An announcement is expected soon on scrapping the requirement for fully vaccinated travellers to take a Covid test on returning to England.

No 10 said the rules will be reviewed by the end of January.

CARE HOMES

Plans to ease restrictions on care home visits will be announced in the next few days. At present, care homes must impose severe restrictions on visitors for up to 28 days if there has been a Covid outbreak affecting two or more residents.

BY MARCH AT THE LATEST

SELF-ISOLATION

Boris Johnson said he ‘very much expects’ not to renew the legal requirement to self-isolate with Covid when the rules lapse on March 24.

He said this could happen even earlier, if the data allows.

The legal requirement will be replaced with guidance that urges people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.

BY JULY

FREE TESTS

Free Covid lateral flow tests look set to be scrapped by July.

People will be pointed towards an online ordering system to purchase the tests, which cost £30 for a pack of seven.

The draft letter by UsForThem warns that unless the Government steps in to ‘curtail the abilities of local authorities to introduce measures themselves, I fear that millions of children will still be subjected to masks in schools for months to come’.

‘To reverse the damage, the new guidance you issue must be extremely strongly worded indeed,’ the letter adds.

‘You should certainly forbid local authorities from unilaterally implementing face masks in schools. In some US states where governors have banned mask mandates, they have protected children by making legal provision for parental opt-out.’

The National Deaf Children’s Society today warned that schools which choose to impose masks risk flouting the Equality Act.

Mike Hobday, its director of campaigns, told MailOnline: ‘Government guidance in England does not recommend masks are used by teachers or pupils in class from today, and from the whole school next week.

‘If schools choose to go against this recommendation, they would need to be confident that they have taken all the action needed to ensure they are fully complying with the Equality Act so that disabled children can access teaching and learning.

‘Unless these reasonable adjustments are made, there may be little point in deaf children even going to school.’

In a statement to the Commons yesterday, Mr Johnson announced WFH guidance would be dropped immediately and rules on masks in schools would also be scrapped from today. Other restrictions including compulsory face coverings on public transport and in shops, and Covid passes for entry to nightclubs and large events will end next Thursday.

And the legal requirement for people with Covid to isolate will also be allowed to lapse when the regulations expire on March 24.

The move could help appease Mr Johnson’s Tory critics after a ‘Pork Pie Putsch’ against the PM over the lockdown party scandal melted away last night.

However, head teachers wrote to parents after Mr Johnson’s announcement to say that they would like children to continue wearing masks.

Andy Byers, head of a state secondary in Durham, said the PM’s Plan B U-turn ‘creates some difficulty for us’.

‘Case rates in the northeast are still relatively high. We currently have 60+ students and ten staff absent, having tested positive. A small proportion of those people have been quite poorly,’ he said.

‘Other local secondary schools are all in a similar position: high levels of absence with some students missing important face-to-face teaching, and a reliance on supply teachers covering lessons.

‘For this reason I would like to encourage students to continue wearing face coverings for the next two or three weeks until (hopefully) case numbers fall.’

A spokeswoman for school leaders’s union NAHT admitted that there is ‘some concern’ about the easing of Plan B measures.

Its general secretary Paul Whiteman said: ‘The Prime Minister’s statement about lifting plan B measures will feel, to many school leaders, at odds with the current situation on the ground.

‘Mass disruption is ongoing, with high numbers of staff and pupils absent. School leaders are telling us they still feel very much in the eye of the Covid storm.’

Willingdon Community School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, also wants its pupils to continue wearing masks.

Head teacher Emily May said: ‘Our students have been fantastic wearing masks since October 2021 and understand that this small act of kindness is helping to keep our community safe.

‘We still have significant Covid infections within the school community and a 10 per cent rise of Covid cases in this local area.

‘It is not sensible to relax this measure yet. However, we do appreciate that each school needs to be able to make their own decision based on their school context and it needs to be reviewed regularly.’

Children at Hanley Castle High School, Worcestershire, have also been told to keep wearing face coverings.

Lindsey Cooke, the head teacher, said: ‘I do think this was a very rushed announcement.

‘Our year 11 and year 13 exam groups have missed so much school already; what we do not want to do is to rush into taking masks off and then get another outbreak in those year groups.’

But other teachers welcomed the end of masks in schools. Joseph Sparks, an assistant principal at Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy in Greenwich, London, today called face coverings a ‘barrier to learning’.

Has your child been sent home for refusing to wear a mask?

He told Sky News: ‘We welcome the change here at the academy and ultimately we will follow the advice and guidance given to us by the DfE. And as you can see from the students in this particular class, they’ve opted not to wear one this morning.

‘But we’ll leave that choice to them, and for us at the academy, it’s about making them safe and making sure their learning experience is a seamless one and can continue as normal as possible.’

Pressed on why masks can be a ‘barrier to learning’, he explained: ‘I had an example yesterday where I was teaching a class, and I didn’t know who had answered the question.

‘Sometimes it can be a bit of a barrier like that to that social interaction that takes place, and knowing which students might need help. Ultimately we’ve left that choice to the students from this point.’

Mr Sparks added: ‘Our job is to keep the students as safe as possible. We’ve taken lots of measures over the course of the various lockdowns to ensure that our students remain safe.

‘We’ve been really fortunate… our students have continued to come to the academy every day, we’ve had really had attendance.’ 

It comes as business chiefs hailed yesterday’s WFH announcement, calling it ‘great news for small businesses and city centres that rely on office workers’.

And nightclub bosses indicated that they won’t continue enforcing Covid passes after next Thursday, telling Radio 4’s Today programme that there is ‘no proof anywhere in the world that nightclubs are any worse than any indoor setting’ for virus transmission. 

However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan put himself at odds with the PM by ordering TfL customers to continue wearing masks on TfL Tube and bus services.  

Britain’s top medics also insisted that scrapping Covid curbs at such pace ‘risks creating a false sense of security’ with the NHS still under pressure. 

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association council, said: ‘This decision clearly is not guided by the data. When Plan B was introduced in December, there were 7,373 patients in hospital in the UK. The latest data this week shows there are 18,9791.’

He warned that ending mandates on mask-wearing would ‘inevitably increase transmission’ and place the most vulnerable at a higher risk.

And Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation representing health bodies, said now ‘is not the time for complacency about this virus’.

Let the mask madness begin: Confusion as commuters are told to wear and not wear coverings at the SAME station after TfL and rail firms issued conflicting orders – as some shoppers ditch them ALREADY 

Boris Johnson’s mask U-turn descended into chaos today after TfL and rail firms issued conflicting orders and shoppers ditched them early.

The Prime Minister is scrapping all Covid curbs in England, including compulsory masks on public transport from next Thursday.

Already this morning, in an Asda supermarket in south London binned their masks and went without in a show of brazen non-compliance.

John Lewis and Waitrose became the first major stores to confirm that masks are no longer necessary. A spokesman told MailOnline that it will ‘suggest’ masks are worn, but stressed ‘it will be down to individuals to make a personal choice’. 

However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned that face coverings will remain a ‘condition of carriage’ on all TfL services including Tubes, buses, Overground trains, trams or river boats – meaning people without masks may be denied travel unless exempt.

TfL said that 500 officers and ‘police partners’ will be out across the network in the coming days to ensure that customers continue to comply with the Government’s restrictions until the law expires next week. The service warned that ‘those who do not wear face coverings may be prevented from using our services or asked to leave the network’.

Messaging on masks threatened to collapse further into farce after the Rail Delivery Group said National Rail would only ask people to wear masks in busy indoor settings.

This creates the bizarre situation in London where masks will be required on some services but not others travelling on the same tracks between the same stations – because one is operated by Transport for London and the other is not.

For example, commuters travelling from Kensington Olympia to Shepherd’s Bush will need to wear masks on Overground trains but not on Southern services.

Deputy chief executive of NHS Providers Saffron Cordery said that some trusts had reported they were expecting their peak later this week despite a fall in case numbers nationally due to regional variations in the number of hospital admissions.

‘That’s why it’s important that there is recognition that this surge isn’t over, and that the health service is still operating under extremely challenging circumstances,’ she added.   

However, business chiefs cheered the latest easing. Kevin Ellis, chairman of PwC UK, told the Times: ‘The No1 question I’m being asked from our people is when can we get back to the office – they value time with colleagues, alongside the flexibility to work from home.

‘After the last lockdown restrictions were lifted, it took us two months to get back to 80 per cent capacity. We’re expecting a faster bounce-back now – people know the drill’.

Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the easing of Plan B would be applauded by her members, ‘particularly those based in city and town centres which rely on footfall from office workers’. 

Chris Hirst, global CEO of Havas Creative, told Radio 4’s Today programme that ‘many of our employees really do want to come back’ and predicted most of the UK workforce would be back in the office from Monday. He added that he would be talking to individual staff nervous about the WFH relaxation. 

Matthew Fell, the CBI’s chief policy director, said: ‘It’s great news that Plan B is coming to an end and businesses will be hopeful that we are finally starting to turn the corner on Covid-19.

‘There’s a vital need now for greater consistency in how we live with the virus in the longer term. Swinging back and forth between restrictions and normality has been damaging.’ 

Mr Fell said hybrid working would remain, as firms sought a balanced approach to home and office working.

He added: ‘There are clear benefits to being in the office, such as collaboration and on-the-job learning, and blanket work-from-home guidance has had significant downsides for city centre trade in sectors such as hospitality and retail.’

Jace Tyrrell, Chief Executive of the New West End Company said: ‘With office employees set to return to London’s West End, retailers, bars and restaurants will be looking ahead to a promising year.

‘With the support of returning shoppers and Government alike, we are confident that the West End can achieve £7.5billion of turnover this year as it continues on the long road to recovery.’ 

The Federation of Small Business also welcomed the move, though bosses warned it was not all good news, against a backdrop of higher taxes and business rates. 

Its chairman Mike Cherry said: ‘We would now urge everyone to get behind small firms – be that on a commute, whilst working from home, online, or in-person – as they work night and day to recover from another incredibly stressful festive season.

‘Equally, it’s important to respect the house rules that each individual small firm has implemented to keep its customers and staff safe – many have invested thousands in making premises more secure.

‘Small firms and sole traders stand ready to spur our economic recovery from this recession as they did the last. After new import checks took effect this month, however, they are now staring down the barrel of a jobs tax hike, a dividend taxation increase and business rates bills landing in April.

‘The Government should be looking at policies that will empower small businesses and start-ups to get our economy firing on all cylinders again.’

It comes after Covid cases fell in most parts of the UK for the first time since early December, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Mr Johnson said that while there are some places where cases are likely to continue rising, including in primary schools, scientists believed ‘it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally’.

Has your child been sent home for refusing to wear a mask? Email: [email protected]

Ministers draw up plans to require passengers to show proof of booster jab to enter UK with all testing rules set to be dropped for the fully-vaccinated 

Ministers are set to ditch the Covid testing system for fully vaccinated holidaymakers within days.

The move will give the hard-hit travel industry another boost after the Government scrapped pre-return tests and costly post-arrival PCR swabs earlier this month.

It will save a family of four around £80 to £100 on testing costs. As it stands, returning double-jabbed Britons must take one rapid lateral flow test by day two. If positive, they must take a confirmatory PCR test.

But ministers are preparing to scrap this requirement, with an announcement by next Wednesday. It will be the first time fully-vaccinated Britons can go abroad without having to test on return since travel swabs were introduced in January last year. 

Ministers are set to ditch the Covid testing system for fully vaccinated holidaymakers within days

Ministers are set to ditch the Covid testing system for fully vaccinated holidaymakers within days

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday

It is understood the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ could remain two jabs rather than three until spring. After that, travellers who have not received a booster jab could face testing restrictions.

Unvaccinated travellers will remain subject to multiple tests and self-isolation.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is said to have been leading the charge for scrapping the remaining testing restrictions.

 However, all arrivals will still need to fill out a passenger locator form within 48 hours of arrival in England.

Boris Johnson came under pressure in the Commons over the issue from his predecessor yesterday after announcing Plan B curbs would be lifted.

The move will give the hard-hit travel industry another boost after the Government scrapped pre-return tests and costly post-arrival PCR swabs earlier this month

The move will give the hard-hit travel industry another boost after the Government scrapped pre-return tests and costly post-arrival PCR swabs earlier this month 

Former PM Theresa May said: ‘If we’re going to learn to live with Covid, we need to facilitate travel. 

‘So will [Mr Johnson] take this opportunity to announce that when Plan B restrictions are removed next week, the Government will also make it clear that there will be no testing requirements for anybody entering England who is fully-vaccinated?’ 

He replied: ‘We’re certainly reviewing the testing arrangements for travel and [Health Secretary Sajid Javid] will be making a statement in the next few days.’

Alluding to the fact many countries will likely require three jabs as a condition of entry, he added: ‘But I think it’s very important everybody in the country understands that getting your booster, wherever you want to go in the world, is going to be a pretty crucial thing to do.’

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: ‘Ministers have been saying all the right things about needing to get on with our lives – this feels like the last hurdle to achieving that.’

So what is changing… and when will it happen? Your guide to the post-curb rules as Boris Johnson announces the end of Covid Plan B restrictions

IMMEDIATELY

WORKING FROM HOME 

The Prime Minister said the Government is no longer asking people to work from home. He called on people to speak to their employers about arrangements for returning to the office.

FROM TODAY

MASKS IN SCHOOLS

From today, secondary school pupils will not have to wear face coverings in classrooms.

The requirement to wear masks in corridors and other communal areas will end next Thursday, January 27.

Face masks in schools will no longer be required from next Thursday

Face masks in schools will no longer be required from next Thursday

FROM NEXT THURSDAY

MASKS IN PUBLIC PLACES

From next Thursday, the Government will no longer legally mandate the wearing of face coverings in shops and on public transport.

But they will continue to suggest masks should be worn in enclosed and crowded places where people could come into contact with those they do not normally meet.

The Prime Minister said this meant the Government will ‘trust the judgment of the British people and no longer criminalise anyone who chooses not to wear one’.

COVID PASSPORTS

Proof of vaccination or a recent negative test will no longer be needed to enter nightclubs and large venues from next Thursday.

But businesses will still be free to use the NHS Covid Pass if they want.

BY THE END OF THE MONTH

TRAVEL

An announcement is expected soon on scrapping the requirement for fully vaccinated travellers to take a Covid test on returning to England.

No 10 said the rules will be reviewed by the end of January.

CARE HOMES

Plans to ease restrictions on care home visits will be announced in the next few days. At present, care homes must impose severe restrictions on visitors for up to 28 days if there has been a Covid outbreak affecting two or more residents.

BY MARCH AT THE LATEST

SELF-ISOLATION

Boris Johnson said he ‘very much expects’ not to renew the legal requirement to self-isolate with Covid when the rules lapse on March 24.

He said this could happen even earlier, if the data allows.

The legal requirement will be replaced with guidance that urges people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.

BY JULY

FREE TESTS

Free Covid lateral flow tests look set to be scrapped by July.

People will be pointed towards an online ordering system to purchase the tests, which cost £30 for a pack of seven.  

source: dailymail.co.uk